


Documentaries

by collapsethelightintoearth



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Documentaries, Donna-centric, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Life After the Doctor, Memory Loss, post-journey's end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 06:36:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1129470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collapsethelightintoearth/pseuds/collapsethelightintoearth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Donna knows there’s something in her mind that wants to be remembered. It makes its way to the surface when she and Shaun are watching a documentary on physics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Documentaries

Donna just _knows_ there’s something buried deep in the recesses of her mind, something waiting to be remembered. One year of her life missing, explained away as brain damage after a car accident. There’s something always missing, though. ‘Car accident’ doesn’t explain a lot of things, like the time two months ago when Shaun and her watched some physics documentary on the telly. He had been preparing to change the channel when she reached over and stopped him. Her eyes fixed upon the screen, and stayed there for the next hour. The scientists jumped from topic to topic, from the Novikov self-consistency principle, to interdimensional travel, back and forth like an intellectual dance. The documentary went to commercial and Donna was entirely still. Shaun looked over at her worriedly. When it returned, a new physicist was brought on, who began arguing against the very possibility of time travel.

“You’re wrong”, Donna whispered, angry and confused and _scared_

“What, love?” Shaun asked in bewilderment. 

Donna turned to him for the first time in an hour. There were tears in her eyes. 

“He’s wrong”, she repeated, louder. 

‘About what?” He prompted carefully after a moment, noticing how frightened she looked. 

“Time travel is possible. It exists too, not only theoretically, but in actuality.” Donna started slowly, hesitantly, but soon began to gain momentum. “See, there’s really a multitude of ways to do it. First, there’s cosmic strings, which work in conjunction with black holes, then there’s Einstein–Rosen bridges, and then-” she broke off, a pained sound escaping her lips. 

“Then what?” Shaun asked softly and even more hesitantly.

“Then - oh, I can’t remember!” Tears started to stream freely down Donna’s face. A broken sob escaped her, and one hand pressed tightly to her temple. “My head hurts.”

“I’ll get you some of your Migraine medication,” Shaun offered, concerned.

Donna attempted a watery smile. “Thank you, Shaun. I love you.” 

“I love you too.” His smile was just as forced, and he left the room. When he came back, Donna was watching the credits, an unsettled and perplexed look on her face. Looking at her, Shaun realized something- not once, during the entire documentary, had Donna looked confused as to what the physicists were discussing. The look on her face was that of someone rediscovering something they had once loved, but had forgotten. 

Now she just looked lost, like someone trying to remember the details to a dream they had just awoken from. He walked back over to Donna, handing her the pills and a glass of water. She accepted them gratefully, and he turned to leave again, sensing that she needed her space. They would talk about whatever effect the documentary had on her when she was ready. Already out of the room, Shaun didn’t see the split-second decision cross Donna’s eyes. He didn’t see her push herself up off the couch and open her laptop, fingers shaking against the keys, typing in two words into the search engine: _Time Travel._


End file.
